Month in Review – January 2015

The Australia day aftermath generally signals the return of life to post-holiday normality, and this week in employment law was no exception to that rule.

In the often controversial world of Unfair Dismissal at the Fair Work Commission, three cases caught our interest, each of them going the way of the employer. In McDaid v Future Engineering, a a dismissal was upheld in relation to poor employee conduct at a Christmas Party. Mr McDaid had thrown a fellow employee, fully clothed, into a swimming pool. This was held to be a valid reason for the dismissal. In Toll Holdings v Johnpulle, the full bench overturned a first instance decision that a dismissal was unfair, and upheld a dismissal, in a case where racist comments had been made by the employer. The full Bench held that prior comments the employee had been counselled for should be taken into account as forming part of a ‘pattern of unacceptable behaviour’. Finally, in a very similar case of Horner v Kailis Bros, the commission held that warnings for similar previous conduct should be taken into account. In this instance, the employee had sworn at and verbally abused his supervisor. Our key contributor, Helen Carter, spoke with Ross Greenwood on 2GB about this case during the week.

On our blog, Alecia Thompson wrote about the Dick Smith Employees. While public concern has been widespread for the duped owners of gift cards and online purchases, sympathy must extend first to the employees who face losing their job after the crash of Dick Smith. Brian Powles discussed Parental Leave and the double dipping issue. Are the savings the Coalition proposes actually going to be realised? And at what cost?